The present invention relates to a method and apparatus implementing the method for processing an electronic mail message. In the method, a first message is formed by an electronic mail server, the message comprising information on the structural parts of the electronic mail message arrived at the server, as well as on attributes relating to the content of said structural parts, said first message being transmitted from the electronic mail server to a terminal.
Electronic mail is a telematic service, wherein messages can be stored in a computer memory for being read by a receiver. For the implementation of electronic mail, electronic mail servers acting as data transmission gateways are connected to a telecommunication network, which gateways transmit the electronic mail messages to one another until a destination computer is reached. The receiving computer stores the electronic mail message to a storage medium as an electronic mail message folder, which a user can access to check his/her mail and transmit the mail further into his own computer using a local mail client software. Mail client softwares follow a selected read protocol of which the POP (Post Office Protocol) and the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) can be given as examples.
Initially, the structure of electronic mail mainly supported the transmission of English text between two users via a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) network. As it became more widely used, there was an increasing need to transmit, through different kinds of networks, different types of electronic mail messages which also contain text, graphics, images, voice or their combinations in using other languages as well. As a result of a common standardisation work, general specification that defines the structure of electronic mail messages, ie, the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) has been developed. As a result of the development work, it is easier to transmit in the Internet electronic mail messages that have a clear structure, and the headings of electronic mail messages that are in a text format may contain characters not included in the US-ASCII set of characters (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). An electronic mail message can be parsed into parts and a description of the content of the structural part in question can be included in each structural part. Several electronic mail message formats can be applied to the structural parts of an electronic mail message, and the structural parts may also contain multi-part sub-structures. The parts that are in a text format may also contain characters not included in the US-ASCII set of characters.
However, a prerequisite for processing data in different formats is that an electronic mail client has the use of sufficient means for processing the data as required. One needs viewing programs, as well as conversion programs to edit the data into a format identifiable to the viewing programs, which sets requirements on the performance of the computer used for processing. Particularly in computers with a limited processor output and memory capacity, the processing of several file formats is problematic. Due to the rapid pace of software development, the versions of the used applications change quickly and, therefore, the client must constantly take care of the upgrading of the software in use. It should also be noted that the MIME is basically a code of practice, and individual solutions implemented on the basis of it may have compatibility problems, which the user finds frustrating.
Now, a method and apparatus implementing the method have been invented to reduce the disadvantages presented above. It is characteristic of the method according to the invention that a second message is formed by a terminal, the message comprising information about at least one processing, directed to the content of the electronic mail message, to be carried out by a server; said second message is transmitted to the server; said processing is carried out by the server in response to said second message; and the processed message or part of it is transmitted from the electronic mail server to the terminal.
An object of the invention is also a terminal according to claim 8 for utilising electronic mail services implemented through a telecommunications network, the terminal comprising means for receiving a first message from a server, the first message comprising information about the structural parts of said electronic mail message and the attributes relating to the content of said structural parts. It is characteristic of the terminal that the terminal comprises means for forming a second message, the second message comprising information about at least one processing in the server, directed to the content of the electronic mail message, and means for transmitting the second message or its part to the server.
Another object of the present invention is an electronic mail server, according to claim 9, comprising a database for storing electronic mail messages, means for forming a first message comprising information about the structural parts of the electronic mail message that is in the database of the electronic mail server and the attributes relating to the content of said structural parts; and means for transmitting said first message from the electronic mail server to a terminal. It is characteristic of the electronic mail server that the electronic mail server comprises means for receiving a second message transmitted by the terminal, the second message comprising information about at least one processing in the server, directed to the content of the electronic mail message, means for carrying out said processing in response to the receiving of said second message; and means for transmitting the processed message or its part from the electronic mail server to the terminal.
Yet another object of the invention is a data transmission system that implements digital electronic mail services, according to claim 11, comprising one or more terminals, electronic mail servers, databases that are in connection with the electronic mail servers, as well as data transmission networks, the electronic mail server comprising means for forming a first message comprising information about the structural parts of an electronic mail message that is the database of the electronic mail server and the attributes relating to the content of said structural parts, and means for transmitting the first message to the terminal. It is characteristic of the data transmission system that the terminal comprises means for forming a second message comprising information about at least one processing, directed to the content of the electronic mail message, carried out in the server, and means for transmitting the second message to the server; the electronic mail server comprising means for receiving said second message, means for carrying out said processing in response to said second message, and means for transmitting the processed message or its part from the electronic mail server to the terminal.
The invention is based on that a server reports a received electronic mail message in a parsed format, whereupon a client is informed of the structure of the electronic mail message and attributes relating to the content of the structural parts. These could be, e.g. the representation of the information contained in a structural part, the language of the text contained in a structural part, etc. The client determines, which processing activity is to be directed to the electronic mail message, forms a message corresponding to the processing by the terminal, and sends it to the electronic mail server. In response to the received message, the electronic mail server carries out the processing activity selected by the client. Due to a solution according to the present invention, an activity directed to the content of an electronic mail message can thus be implemented in a centralised manner by a server equipped with larger resources. Due to the invention, new services directed to the processing of the content of electronic mail messages can be created for a server in a simple way. The resources required for the implementation of the services can be concentrated to servers, which often have significantly more capacity for the implementation of the services than the user""s terminal. The available range of tools can be more comprehensive and, due to the invention, software maintenance can be carried out in a centralised manner by the service provider. The invention is particularly useful to mobile subscriber often having terminals with limited capacity. As the solution, according to the invention, can also easily be implemented for terminal and server equipment, a significant advantage as compared to the existing solutions can be gained by means of an extension that can easily be adapted to the standard.